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BackPack Program™

ONE IN FIVE IOWA CHILDREN DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

The BackPack Program™ is designed to lessen the consequence of chronic childhood hunger by providing a sack of kid-friendly, easy-to-prepare foods to low-income elementary school children on weekends when they do not have access to the federal free and reduced-price meal program. There is no cost for children, their families or schools to participate in the BackPack Program™.

The contents of the backpacks vary each week, but contain a variety of items such as pop-top meals or soup, 100% juice, single-serve cereal, fruit cups, sunbutter (made with sunflower seeds), shelf-stable 2% milk, pudding cups and snacks.

This year, we will serve more than 5,000 low income children each week at 139 sites in 31 Iowa counties.

Get Involved

Click here if you are an EXISTING partner and would like to expand your program*.

*Please note, current schools' requests to expand their programs must be made by their site coordinator at the school, via e-mail. Decisions to add students to your school's Backpack Program™ will be made following the same timeline as adding new schools.